The Riva, No. 1 (The Riva)
James McNeill Whistler American
Not on view
The artist etched the Riva degli Schiavone from his room in the Casa Jankowitz in Venice. Traditional visual hierarchy is overturned and the foreground filled with a triangular expanse of open plaza. Paving stones are suggested with a few etched lines and the edges enlivened with pedestrians, moored boats, and gondolas. An arched bridge leads across a canal toward a curved bank lined with buildings, concluding in the tiny exclamation point of the Campanile. Whistler arrived in Venice in September 1879, commissioned by the Fine Art Society to prepare twelve etchings in three months, but returned to London in November 1880 with many more plates. This print was published in Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the "First Venice Set") in December.
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